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X 



Second War with England 





SUNDRY PAPERS 



BY REV. HENRY OTIS THAYER 




THE TIMES CO., PRINTERS 
Bath, Maine 



Second War with England 





SUNDRY PAPERS 



BY REV. HENRY OTIS THAYER 




THE TIMES CO., PRINTERS 
Bath, Maine 



#• 



F3i^ 





7^7 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE— !'PP«Btt35a&^ 

The first paper — Enterprise-Boxer Combat — was originally contributed 
to Sprague's Journal of Maine History and copied with author's revision by 
the Bath Independent, in August numbers of 1914. The other papers were 
regular contributions to the Times and Independent and all are now reprinted. 






./•f IJ \9\i 



FIRST PAPER 

THE ENTERPRISE AND BOXER 



Their Naval Combat, September 5, 1813 



I. The Kngageinent and Its Locality 

Any one who has sought in many 
historical works comprehensive 
views of the war, and for any reas- 
on has given special notice to this 
one engagement, has not failed to 
perceive variant opinions respecting 
the place where the Yankee and the 
Briton contended for the prize of 
war. 

Narrowly viewed it may be es- 
teemed a trifling matter, but the 
entire movements of the vessels dur- 
ing two days are required for the 
clear apprehension and historical 
setting of the occurence. Trifling 
items combine to make the fullness 
and truth of history. 

Maine's excellent historian, Wil- 
liamson, wrote not twenty years 
after the event. He states that the 
Boxer was ordered to cruise off 
Portland in order to bring on an 
engagement. His form of statement 
implied that the Enterprise was 
stationed there and responded upon 
challenge, and the fight then took 
place. His trusted accuracy and 
authority may have aided in guid- 
ing subsequent writers and in es- 
tablishing an opinion that "off 
Portland" was the scene of the com- 
bat. Certainly that opinion has 
widely iprevailed to the present 
time, as many volumes and lesser 
publications give evidence. 



It will be found in at least four 
biographical dictionaries of dates 
from 1857 to 1910. Winsor's pro- 
found Critical History has it "near 
Portland;" Bryant's Popular His- 
tory, "in sight of Portland;" J. S. C. 
Abbot's History of Maine repeats 
Williamson; Harper's Encyclopaedia 
of U. S. History, 1912, asserts "off 
Portland," changing the statement 
of an earlier edition; an able local 
investigator of that city published 
the same. During recent decades a 
leading religious newspaper of Bos- 
ton has three times at separate peri- 
ods, so asserted in its children's de- 
partment; a Portland newspaper of 
the passing centennial day of the 
engagement gave Portland and Cas- 
co Bay as the locality. Other in- 
stances are not needed to show the 
existence of the opinion within and 
without the state. 

In support of this belief our hon- 
ored poet Longfellow has had 
weighty influence, though seldom 
are poets trustworthy historians. 
But it is by no means certain that 
the restrictions of rhyme allowed the • 
clear utterance of his real opinion, 
indeed he wrote of "the sea-fight far- 
away," and then in the cadence of 
four lines was woven the poet's rem- 
iniscent vision of two distinct facts, 
the fight and the burial, the shotted 
guns of the far away combat and 



SKCOND WAR WITH F.NGI.AND 



the requiem guns resounding over had become known at Halifax and 



the bay. 

If historical students and writers, 
however informed, have drawn con- 



the Boxer, newly fitted out at St. 
John, was on the lookout for the 
Yankee brig; indeed had just pre- 



clusions which assign the conflict to i viously sailed as far as the Kennebec 
the vicinity of Portland, then ordin-iand returned eastward, 
ary readers and persons claiming [ . The Enterprise had entered on 
some knowledge of the Enterprise- her duty, and sailins? from Ports- 



Boxer affair will in large majority 
be expected to declare the same be- 



mouth harbor had anchored in Port- 
land harbor on the third of the 



lief. Such seems to be the fact in month. Her commander. Lieutenant 

that city and in the State and in oth- Burrows, gained no information that 

er States. I such a vessel as his antagonist 

The authors cited, however, fan- proved to be was on the coast, but 

not be esteemed a majority. Sever- sailing out on the morning of the 

al historians have written no more fourth, (Saturday), and getting ru- 

definitely than "the coast of Maine. I mors of privateers about Monhe- 

One assertion is broadly made "be- gan, stood away for that island. 

tween Cape Elizabeth and Seguin." i „ , ^, , . u ^f 

, ^ ., , ,. ., Early the next morning when off 

Another definitely, "near the •' ^ • , 

Pemaquid, a sail was descried, — a 



mouth of the Kennebec." Others 
point farther east to the place of the 
encounter, "open sea inside Monhe- 
gan;" again "outside" and "off 
"Monhegan;" but a larger number! 
only localize the engagement by ref- 1 
erence to Pemaquid or to its bay or 
point. Of these, first stands Loss- 
ing's War of 1812, 1868, a work 
of exacting research and authority: I 
Harper's Cyclopedia. 1892; F. £. I 
Hill, Twenty-Six Ships, 1903; and, 
nine others to be hereafter men- j 
tioned. ! 

It is justly due and is fully con-i 
ceded to all writers who have de- ^ 
Glared for the Portland location to' 



brig, wholly unknown, and Captain 
Burrows (to be called so, though in 
rank only a lieutenant) must dis- 
cover whether friend or enemy. It 
was the Boxer at anchor in Pema- 
quid Bay, — a local report said, be- 
tween John's Island and the shore. 
After reconnaissance for a time, 
more needed by the Enterprise than 
the other, the Boxer's ensigns were 
hoisted, accompanied by the chal- 
lenge gun. This by naval etiquette 
was an invitation to further acquain- 
tance and proclaimed the waiting 
vessel an eager adversary. 

The Enterprise now tacked to the 



believe that the opinion would not; south and ran out to the open sea 
have been I'titertained had they been and was followed by the Boxer as if 
able to consider Intelligently the of- | in chase, — both standing out a few 
ficlal report of the engagement. j miles west of Monhegan. Such was 

A glance is here desirable at the the meeting of the combatants, — the 
state of local war affairs. At the first stage of the engagement. It 



beginning of September, 1813, the 



took place not "off Portland," but 



Enterprise had been ordered to the nearly forty miles east, at Pema- 
Eastern coast. J. F'enlmore Cooper quid. After those first courtesies of 
says she was to cruise from Cape naval warfare, the two brigs, with 
Ann to the Bay of Fundy. to deal defiant ensigns aloft, sought the free 
with swarming smugglers and Brit- range of the open sea for the test 
Jsh privateers. The plan, however, | of ships, and guns and men. 



ENGAGEMENT OF ENTERPRISE AND BOXER 



These events of the morning of 
the fatal day are taken from reports 
made after the death of Captain 
Burrows, by the senior officer in 
command, Lieutenant Edward Rut- 
ley McCall. His own signature was 
M'Call, but the other form has come 
into use. 

Captain Burrows sought full sea- 
room off shore for his tactics; — 
first, to discover the character of his 
antagonist, for his was the caution 
of true courage and prudence, not 
recklessly to risk his ship by en- 
gaging if disparity of size and guns 
was too great; also, he wished to 
test the sailing qualities of the foe 
and to seek the advantage of posi- 
tion. 



II. The Aged Seaman's Accoimt 

Information respecting incidents 
of the engagement, as well as its lo- 
cation, I am fortunately able to 
draw directly from a trusty source, 
a seaman who participated in the 
fight. 

It was my privilege to know an 
aged Kennebec shipmaster, a sturdy, 
strong-minded seaman of the old 
school. Captain William Barnes of 
Woolwich, who when a youth of sev- 
enteen served one of the guns of the 
Enterprise on the fateful day. He 
was neither reluctant nor desirous 
to talk of the cruise and the fight; 
indeed frowned upon the thought 
that any distinction was due there- 
by. I was told that in former days 
at social or public gatherings, ne 
had repelled attempts to do him hon- 
or, by toast or eulogy. Forcibly he 
declared to me his scorn for honors 
derived from warfare, emphatically 
asserting war to be wicked slaugh- 
ter. 

He informed me that in the anx- 
ious hours of preliminary tactics the 
contestants ranged and circled in 



free sea-room between Monhegan 
and Seguin. Here was the arena of 
conflict; in extreme length twenty- 
one miles, but much less in their ac- 
tual range. I gained the old sea- 
man's estimate of distances and po- 
sition at the hour of the final duel. 
The locality as I apprehended it, 
will best be shown by reference to 
the diagram in my note book made 
at the interview. Join Monhegan 
and Seguin by a line; extend 
a line from each, of nearly equal 
length, to intersect a few miles 
further sea-ward, forming a tri- 
angle. The apex of the triangle 
movable as the brigs held the east- 
ward tack will represent the ocean 
space of combat where, after six 
hours of maneuvering, in part be- 
calmed, the vessels closed in and 
their broadsides thundered. The 
offing of Damariscove Island nearly 
agrees with the estimate; or a close 
approximation to the fact will be 
Longitude 69 degrees, 3 6 minutes 
and Latitude 43 degrees and 42 
minutes. 

An aged woman of Georgetown 
told me of viewing the battle at no 
long distance easterly. A statement 
in an address on September 9, 1913, 
before the Portland Board of Trade 
by Mr. Fritz H. Jordan points to the 
same locality, and is in closer 
agreement than any other account 
so far found, with the description 
given by the aged captain. 

A fair presumption, therefore, will 
place the vessels at the first broad- 
side some eight miles southeasterly 
from Seguin; their movements dur- 
ing forty-five minutes in action 
would advance them at surrender 
well towards the ofling of Monhegan 
several miles out to sea. Captain 
Barnes asserted one disadvantage 
of the Boxer: the brig stood higher 
out of the water and offered a better 
target. He mentioned, as have 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



others, how badly cut up slie was 
both above and below; that eight 
eighteen-pound shot holes were in 
one plank in her hull, near the water 
line; her condition required that 
twenty-two men be put to the 
pumps, and had rough weather 
come on, she would have foundered 
before reaching Portland. Com- 
modore Hull when later he examined 
the prize said there was difficulty 
in keeping her afloat to get her in. 

Young Barnes was stationed ai 
the second gun aft and saw much of 
his commander. Of the fatal wound 
he told how at a moment of special 
need Burrows stepped forward to aid 
in running a gun to place, and while 
bent over, with foot for advantage 
on the bulwarks to exert all his 
strength, a musket ball drove in at 
the groin and upward into his body. 
Further he asserted that Lieutenant 
McCall refused to take command, 
but yielding to the obvious demand, 
I conclude that he with his associate. 
Lieutenant Tillinghast, continued 
the action aided by suggestions and 
directions of their commander, who 
heroically endured his suffering and 
refused to be carried from the deck. 
His death delayed eight hours. His 
antagonist, Captain Blythe, was in- 
stantly killed at the beginning of 
the combat. 

Captain Barnes further gave high 
commendation to Tillinghast, and 
regarded him the superior of the 
two in efficiency. He thought him 
deserving a major share of praise 
for the success when the two offi- 
cers were forced to take such re- 
sponsibility. The Boxer once at- 
tempted boarding, which was skill- 
fully evaded, yet her jib dragged 
along the Knterprlse's quarter. 

Another unreported incident was 
detailed by Capt. Barnes who as a 
member of the crew was fully cog- 
nizant of the facts. A subordinate 



officer, the sailing masler, Haiiter 
by name, he regarded a coward, but 
also called him a braggart, yet he 
was the first to show weak knees in 
the action, left his post, ran about 
kneeled to peek over the bulwarks 
to see what was going on. During 
the preceding hours of the comman- 
der's sailing tactics, his talk to the 
men was unworthy of a seaman in 
his position, harmful, insubordinate, 
through casting reflections on his 
Lommander, declaring in loose talk 
before the crew, — "Oh, there'll be 
no fight; he won't fight; he'll run 
away; I'm ashamed; I'll quit the ser- 
vice." For this conduct he was sum- 
moned before a court martial, was 
condemned and cashiered. Barnes 
asserted, "He only saved his neck 
because he did not stand well with 
the crew," the board of inquiry be- 
lieving their testimony was biased 
and hostile, more damaging than 
the facts warranted. Full details of 
the case are desirable, but minutes 
and findings of the board of inquiry 
were doubtless destroyed witli other 
naval records. Four men on the 
Boxer were examined and listed for 
cowardly deserting their posts. 

A recent historian has a story 
germane to the Harper case, which 
gives support to the statement of 
Captain Barnes. Preparing for the 
fight which he planned to make. 
Captain Burrows had a long nine 
brought aft and placed to play out 
of a stern port, even cutting away 
woodwork to get range. Some looked 
on the proceeding with startled eyes 
and in suspense, and subdued talk 
went around that the captain was 
I)lanning to run away and had put 
out the gun to be a stern chaser and 
ensiire escape. The Intense feeling 
brought a party of men together, 
who decided to make representa- 
tions to the captain of their senti- 
ments and fears and declare their 



ENGAGEMENT OF ENTERPRISE AND BOXER 



7 



eagerness to meet the enemy. Their 
delegate, F. H. Aulick, proved weak- 
hearted in going aft and only gave 
the message to Lieutenant McCall 
who reported it to the captain. The 
answer given was clear and emphat- 
ic, they would speedily have the 
fighting they wanted. I must pre- 
sume that the suspicion and restive- 
ness among the crew grew out of the 
sailing master's reprehensible talk. 
Burrows's scheme was justified by 
results, for the long nine, suspected 
as a defense in timorous fiight. 



publication declared it a mistake to 
send her to America; "not strong 
enough to fight, nor fieet enough to 
escape by flight; we do not believe 
she was calculated for any other 
service than taking coals for the 
coasting trade." Some minimized 
the size of the crew and salved the 
soreness of defeat. Much dispute 
was raised on the comparative size 
of the crews; it was maintained 
they were nearly equal; Commo- 
dore Hull believed by reckoning 
hammocks and similar fittings and 



proved in the action a telling wea- 1 other facts obtained, that the Boxer 



pon of offense, by its raking fire, 
which possibly decided the battle. 

At the time of the interview, Cap- 
tain Barnes had passed the four- 
score line, but had a clear mind and 
forty-seven years of sea service 
to his credit. I stood by the 
shrouded form at the end, March 
4, 1882, at the hour of silent 
final departure from his home. 
Probably then was starred the last 
remaining name on the list of the 
gallant crew who saw the Boxer's 
braggart nailed flag torn down. He 
had attained eighty-five years; was 
a native of Berwick. His share of 
the prize money, unless my pencil 
failed, was sixty-two dollars and 
fifty cents. I have also notes from 
business documents, believed au- 
thentic, showing the aggregate sales 
of the Boxer and equipment to be 
eleven thousand six hundred seven- 
ty-four dollars with expenses of five 
hundred fourteen dollars and thir- 
ty-one cents. After her captain's 
death. Lieutenant David M'Greery 
took command. 



entered the fight with about one 
hundred men, while the crew of the 
Enterprise numbered one hundred 
and two. Some recent writers be- 
lieve they find evidence that the 
Boxer's roll was sixty-six. The 
British government was assailed in 
London because it never issued an 
official report. 

Captain Barnes said the Boxer's 
crew, expectant of meeting and cap- 
turing the Enterprise, deridingly 
called her "Shingle Jack," but the 
Yankee crew when they learned that 
the vessel at anchor in the harbor 
was calling in by signal guns her 
boats ashore, returned the compli- 
ment, "Ah! we understand; chicken 
stealing," — in allusion to foraging 
on farm houses. 

A party from the Boxer had gone 
on Saturday to Monhegan; they 
were the surgeon, H. Anderson, two 
midshipmen, Nixon and Pile, and an 
army lieutenant on board for his 
health, J. A. Allen. The latter in 
a defensive statement wrote that the 



Her capture was a bitter pill to three accompanied the surgeon who 
British expectations and pride. Ex- had been invited to visit a crippled 
planations and excuses were many, j son of Josiah Starling, a prominent 
Grouchy individuals cast curses on man of the island. A London sketch 
the brig without cause. A Halifax declared they went "pigeon shoot- 
writer said she belonged to a des- ing:" — both stories are probably 
picable class of vessels. A London! true, for after the surgeon's hour 



8 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



with the sick boy, he and his com- 
panions could seek their game. 

As the Boxer sailed out from 
Pemaquid they expected to be taken 
off, and took a small boat to reach 
their ship. But Captain Blythe was 
so intent on the expected seizure of 
a prize that he drove on, seemingly 
without a thought that his surgeon 
might be needed, as was the desper- 
ate demand a few hours later. On 
the next "day a party of armed men, 
as Allen asserted, came and took 
them prisoners. They sought to 
evade arrest by putting themselves 
under the protection of two men, 
Sampson and Thomas, agreeing to 
be taken by them anywhere in the 
United States. The trick availed 
nothing, and they were taken away 
to the same custody in Portland as 
the vanquished crew. 



III. .\ (ieof-raphical Term Kecon- 
structe<l 

One mystifying word, surprising- 
ly uninterpreted, has kept place 
from then till now in the chief his- 
tories of that naval action. 

The officers of the Enterprise 
were strangers to the coast of Maine, 
except something learned from im- 
perfect sea charts. In sighting the 
Boxer they fell directly upon a new- 
word, — Pemaquid. How Captain 
Burrows wrote it in the log that 
morning we cannot assert. Lieuten- 
ant McCall, a Carolinian, could know 
little of Maine geography, and how 
he wrote the new word in his re- 
port of the engagement, we cannot 
directly know, but some particulars, 
even if too minute, in respect to 
forwarding the report to Washing- 
ton and giving the exciting intelli- 
gence to the public will not be amiss. 

The two brigs, the victor and the 
prize, were brought into the lower 
harbor at Portland soon after noon, 
Monday, September Gth, and an- 



chored under the guns of Vort 
Preble. At the startling cry, boats 
hastened down, and with their re- 
turn, reports and rumors from im- 
patient icrowds at the wharves flew 
abroad in the agitated city. At once 
Mr. Samuel Storer, the local navai 
agent, got the chief facts as best he 
could and by three o'clock dispatch- 
ed a messenger by express to Cap- 
tain — afterwards Commodore — Isaac 
Hull at Portsmouth, which was by 
him forwarded to Commodore Bain- 
bridge at Boston. Mr. Storer, from 
the mixed stories rife in the streets, 
understood that the engagement 
took place between Cape Elizabeth 
and. Seguin, and so asserted in his 
dispatch. This first report of the 
location of the combat was spread 
abroad by Boston and New York 
papers. At the time of writing, 
however, he had seen no one from 
the ships, which delayed on account 
of wind and tide, arrived at the city 
at five o'clock. 

The elating news reached Cap- 
tin Hull in the evening, and on the 
next morning he hastened to Port- 
land. On that forenoon. Tuesday 
the seventh. Lieutenant McCall 
wrote out his official report, which 
Captain Hull at once on arrival dis- 
patched by the mail, just closing, to 
the Secretary of the Navy. Also on 
that day McCall prepared, or assist- 
ed the editor of the Eastern Argus 
of the city in writing, a detailed re- 
port which was printed on the 
morning of the eighth. It was very 
unlike the first; introduced entries 
of the log-book of the Enterprise, 
and noted the hours and occurrences 
in them from early morning to the 
beginning of the action. Boston and 
•New York papers welcomed the first 
detailed statement of the naval vic- 
tory. 

On Tuesday the fourteenth, nine 
days after the event, the National 



SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 



7^ 



11 



construction and changed to a brig. 
She was originally designed for ser- 
vice against privateers about the 
West Indies; also had prominent ac- 
tion in the French and Neapolitan 
Wars. She is rated by the naval his- 
torian Maclay, "unusually fast sail- 
ing," with incidents in her activities 
in proof. She has been called "the 
lucky Enterprise," by success in cap- 
tures and fortunate escapes from 
peril from larger craft. 



Several lieutenants in command 
were, first, John Shaw, next Charles 
Stewart, Andrew Sterrett, Johnson 
Blakesley, the lamented Wm. Bur- 
rows, James Renshaw. 

After the Boxer combat she was 
ordered to the coast of Florida and 
vicinity and had exciting adventures, 
— once escaping only by throwing 
over her guns. For a time she was 
guardship at Charleston and then 
ordered south was wrecked in 1823 
off the coast of Venezuela. 



SECOND PAPER 

SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 



I. The Crimes of Impressment 

It is an accepted principle that a 
nation's sovereignty extends to the 
property and the persons of its sub- 
jects. The State may take a man's 
land, use or destroy his buildings, 
demand his services, if the public 
exigency require. Yet just compen- 
sation must always be made. 

Especially is the principle true in 
respect to the police powers of a na- 
tion, to maintain peace or carry on 
war. The nation must have means 
and men: if not obtained by ordin- 
ary process, the sovereign powder can 
demand and take. 

Yet the State's supremacy has 
been differently viewed. England, a 
representative of monarchical 

Europe, drew close lines; born a 
Briton, always a Briton, and a sub- 
ject with no legal release. By Eng- 
lish law, 'Allegiance is perpetual." 

Our new nation which sprang into 
life with the W^ar of the Revolution, j 
held that a subject could transfer al- 
legiance and come under the United 
States flag and possess all civil 
rights of the native born. 

When Great Britian w^anted men 
for her navy, her officers took Brit- 
ish seamen, and landsmen as well, 
wherever they could be found. She 



held it her right to take men from 
merchant ships on the sea or to seize 
them in seaport towns. The press 
gang was a notorious institution of 
her navy. No sailor, no fisherman, 
away from his vessel for an errand 
or a ramble on shore was secure. 
Even young men of other vocations 
would suddenly disappear and then 
be reported under forced enlistment 
on a warship. The navy stood first; 
other employments must yield men 
to keep its rolls full. This was 
government policy. The method aid- 
ed the growth of dominant sea power 
by which England claimed to be and 
was for a time beyond dispute, mis- 
tress of the ocean. 

But her officers seeking seamen 
were not careful, did not try to be 
careful, in large degree had no 
scruples but a definite purpose to lay 
hold upon American seamen. They 
would pick from a ship's crew likely 
men, declare them British, or often 
deserters from British ships. Pro- 
tests, denials, testimony of ship- 
mates, protection papers declaring 
nationality, were of no worth, not 
heeded, declared false. No resist- 
ance was possible; the hand of pow- 
er was there: boarding officers 
"dressed up in a little brief author- 



12 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



ily. " were judges: their decision 
could not be questioned: the man 
was ordered over the side to the 
waiting boat, a forced recruit to the 
Britisli navy. 

Not every captain was unscrupul- 
ous, autocratic, but the wholesale 
seizure proves the rule of action, — 
take the man first; protests after- 
wards or referred to the Admiralty. 
This business termed impressment, 
though elsewhere than by a nation, 
plain, bold kidnapping, to which ia 
modern sporadic cases the word 
"shanghai" is applied, — long de- 
spoiled United States vessel's. 
Indignant outcries through the 
States, protests and demands of 
diplomacy, availed little: only a few 
sailors were restored. 

President Madison's message of 
June 1, 1S12, upon relations with 
England, detailed a variety of af- 
fronts and wrongs endured and re- 
quiring redress, and was a vigorous 
precursor of the declaration of war, 
seventeen days later. On one point 
he said: 

"British cruisers have been in the] 
continued practice of violating the 
American flag on the great highway 
of nations and of seizing and carry- 
ing away all persons under it, * * * 
• under pretence of searching for 
British subjects: thousands of Amer- 
ican citizens under the safeguard of 
public law and of their national fla.:? 
have been torn from their country 
* • * * have been dragged on 
board of ships of war of a foreign 
nation, exiled to distant climes, to, 
risk their lives in the battles of their 
oppressors, and to be the melan- 
choly instruments of taking away the 
lives of tiieir own brethren." 

A very tame general statement in 
comparison with the concrete facts' 
these following I draw from several 
histories of authority and also from 
newspapers of the time. 



In February, 1^11, evidently to e.\- 
cuse charges, a high member of Par- 
liament admitted there were 3,300 
.Americans in the British navy, yet 
as he urged, only that number in a 
total of 145,000. But by the end ^{ 
that year there were lists of 6,2r)7 
impressed men whose names had 
been sent to Washington, and it was 
believed that of sailors scattered over 
all seas, twice as many were not re- 
ported as were thus listed, and it 
was no excessive estimate that 20,- 
000 were in British ships. Early in 
the war their Admiralty office 
acknowledged that 2,54S had refused 
duty because Americans. In that 
year the editor of Xiles Register 
(Baltimore) dared to affirm: "There 
is not a single British .government 
ship, be her station at Halifax or 
Botany Bay, in the Baltic or off Cape 
Horn, not having on board impressed 
American seamen." 

English sailors did enter our 
ships though the number has been 
greatly exaggerated by their writers. 
They received more humane treat- 
ment, had less rigorous service and 
less fear of pressgangs. Any who 
were in our few war vessels were 
made to feel their peril by the king's 
proclamation, Oct., IS 12, declaring 
that such subjects serving against 
England were liable to be tried for 
liiuh treason. A privateer belonging 
in Baltimore was captured and tak- 
en into Nassau. Six men of the crew 
were seized, put in irons to be car- 
ried to .Tamaica to be tried by the 
terms of the kin.i;'s order, because in 
service in a war-vessel against Eng- 
land. Yet five were native Ameri- 
cans, and one an Irishman who had 
lived in America twenty years. Some 
were sent to Jamaica for trial. When 
the fact was known, twelve British 
prisoners were selected to be hos- 
tages for their safety. 



ENGAGEMENT OF ENTERPRISE AND BOXER 



Intelligencer of Washington pub- 
lished Tjieutenant McCall's first re- 
port, which was copied by Niles Reg- 
ister at Baltimore on the eighteenth 
and also in New York. It is evident 
that the Intelligencer obtained the 
report from the Navy Department, 
for only to the Secretary had it been 
transmitted. It is pertinent here 
to distinguish clearly between the 
first and second report. 

The latter wrote "Pemaquid" for 
the first espial of the two vessels. 
The former published at Washington 
had "Penguin" bay. Hence between 
McCall's pen at Portland and the 
printer's type at Washington a 
transformation in Maine geography 
occurred. Handwriting often assists 
in strange distortion of proper 
names. The undecipherable names 
of many public men do them no hon- 
or. One must believe that the offi- 
cer had become acquainted with the 
name during the three days on the 
coast, without the aid of charts. 
The word has had variations: its 
second syllable, properly a, some- 
times e, has been i and o and even 
y, and it has formerly a few times 
been written Pemquid and Pemquit. 
In ordinary usage now, its second 
syllable is obscure or lost; only care- 
ful enunciation saves it. Probably 
it came to McCall's ear as Pem- 
quid, and so probably he wrote it. 

Easily the error could grow. 
Whatever his ordinary penmanship, 
finely legible or not, McCall could 
be pardoned that morning, oppressed 
by such new forced duties, if words 
or letters lacked nicety. Then 
also, over an utterly new word a 
copyist might be puzzled, and if the 
little pen strokes in m. q and d were 
dim or imperfect, Pemquid could be 
read Pen-guin; even a copyist not 
nicely careful could lose a from Pem- 
aquid also. If these seem to 
anyone fanciful conjectures, if the 



explanation be inadequate, yet by 
whatever hasty pen of McCall, or 
by whatever mental process or 
obliquity of eye in copyist or printer, 
the transformation was effected: a 
tiew geographical term was born. 
The chief agency must reasonably 
'be ascribed to the copyist in Wash- 
ington, not to the Lieutenant in 
Portland. From the National In- 
telligencer's original phrase, "in the 
bay near Penguin point," various 
newspapers introduced the word to 
the public. Penguin Bay or Penguin 
Point. Several printed the second 
report also, but no one seems to have 
noticed the difference. 

Whatever its parentage, the mis- 
shapen creation sprang into vigorous 
life: was adopted by writers of 
merit; has held its place against an 
opponent and has advanced, it seems 
unquestioned and unverified, retain- 
ing its vitality through that century 
and boldly entering the present. In- 
to what early periodicals it had ad- 
mission cannot be stated. The 
earliest volume treating of naval 
events which I have discovered was 
published in Boston in 1816. It has 
Lieutenant McCall's report complete 
from date to signature, including 
"Penguin Point." The same appears 
in a similar work by William James, 
London, 1817, also in the work by 
J. Fenimore Cooper, 1839. Within 
a score of years past it has found 
entry as t'enguin Bay or Penguin 
Point in narrations of the highest 
rank, by Maclay, Roosevelt, McMas- 
ter, Spears: also as late as 1910 by 
W. J. Abbot, and in a late historical 
essay, whose author's name is lost, 
and probably in others. 

The original report, it is assumed, 
went soon to ashes when Washing- 
ton was burnt. The few newspapers 
and books earliest in date which had 
full copies of the original seem to 
be the only source for later and re- 



10 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



cent studc'iu.s aiul writers. Hence it 
is believed that these first printed 
accounts showing by their form that 
they were the true transcriptions 
from the document sent to the Sec- 
retary of the N'avy, were taken with 
full confidence, an assured basis for 
the historian. No one had a thought 
that a flaw could exist in such a 
fiource. However slight or extensive 
the acquaintance of these writers 
with Maine and its history, not a 
suspicion arose that the unknown 
name "Penguin" concealed ancient 
historic — Pemaquid. 

The engagement of the Enterprise 
and Boxer appears to be one out of 
only two or three of that war fought 
in Atlantic waters near the land in 
sight of anxious people. A gold 
medal was ordered by Congress for 
relatives of Captain Burrows; also 
one for Lieutenant McCall. Yet 
omnipresent error was at hand and 
made the date September 4. 

The flag of the Enterprise has 
been preserved, the same it is be- 
lieved, carried through the day of 
combat. It wears the insignia of its 
honor, — fifty-nine musket ball holes. 
It is now in the custody of the Maine 
Historical Society and years ago was 
exhibited in the society's "Longfel- 
low House." 

These tales of naval warfare, 
though stained by repellant blood- 
shed should not be erased from the 
pages of history, but satisfaction 
with results in securing a higher 
stage of independence previously 
gained at such cost, must rightly 
Join with the hope and aim that 
complete amity without a cloud may 
continue henceforth. 



IV. The Coui-t-Mni-tial and \ote« 

Respecting affairs on the Enter- 
prise, the aged seaman asserted a 
court martial upon a subordinato of- 



licLT, a matter of wlii(.-li 1 liad 
found no mention by any one of the 
many writers. 

With no slight pleasure at the last 
days of printing the preceding pages, 
I discovered the official report of 
that court. It corroborates the 
statement by Capt. Barnes except at 
one point. It shows that Lieut. Mc- 
Call preferred charges against the 
sailing-master, William Harper. The 
board of inquiry sat at Portsmouth 
and had Capt. Isaac Hull for presi- 
dent. No details of evidence are 
given, only the unanimous judgment 
of the court, — acquittal. 

Certainly McCall believed he had 
good reasons and duty to make the 
charge. That it was dismissed agrees 
with the view of Capt. Barnes that 
the unfriendly sentiments of the 
sailors towards Harper had weight 
with the court forming its opinion 
that their evidence was biased and 
adverse beyond warrant, or a se'. erer 
penalty would have been inflicted. Iti 
fact the lighter judgment of the 
court reached acquittal not cashier- 
ing. 

On this point, the court's decision, 
the young seaman was at the time 
misinformed, or in advanced years 
his memory was at fault. 
I A word respecting the contesting 
brigs. 

j The Boxer after the i)rize sale re- 

j mained in Portland during the year 

j and in LSI 4, when there were fears 

of a British incursion to seize the 

port, she was manned for defence. 

I Next year she was refitted for the 

merchant service. Capt. Barnes told 

of seeing her at Marseilles. Later 

she was sailing from Lisbon to the 

Cape de Verde Islands, and nothing 

further is obtained of her service or 

her ultimate fate. 

The Enterprise built about 1S00 
sailed in scliooner rig for many 
years, but before 1812 had some re- 



SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 



15 



ers fell contumely, insults, petty 
meanness, brutal treatment by the 
base, the overbearing, the vengeful 
of the king's agents. 

From the time of Washington, 
remonstrances had been made but 
the evils had widened. A writer 
termed impressment "barbarous 
slavery with unparalleled insolence 
of the captors," and another asserted 
there existed no modern parallel ex- 
cept negro-stealing on the coast of 
Africa. A severe indictment. 

Further illustration of the policy 
and its execution must be introduced. 

John Allen, a native of Topsham, 
Maine, and a resident in Wiscasset, 
a seaman for twenty years and com- 
mander on Wiscasset vessels, was in 
May, 1807, impressed but by evidence 
presented obtained discharge. Again 
Feb, 1810, he was seized in Liver- 
pool. That previous discharge, clear 
and full for evidence, was disregard- 
ed and taken from him and he was 
sent to a prison ship, and thence put 
to duty on several vessels. In the 
war with France he lost a leg and 
was sent to the hospital. When the 
healing process was over, he was 
told, "go out free from the service." 

Robert Randall of Wiscasset who 
had served through that war, and 
James Cotterill of the same place, 
who had been in the service eleven 
years, both under impressment, were 
declared to be invalids and were ac- 
cordingly discharged. Such men 
worn out or sick, not further capable 
of a seaman's duty, were turned out. 
In April, 1813, the Eastern Argus of 
Portland completed a list with par- 
ticulars in each one's case, of thirty- 
six men of that city under impress- 
ment abroad, — local instances among 
the 20,000 estimated victims of im- 
perial policy. 

I will leave to others properly to 
characterize by pertinent terms the 
treatment inflicted on Isaac Clark of 



Randolph, Mass. He had sailed in 
Salem ships for seven years and in 
June, 180 9, was seized by a press- 
gang and put on board of His 
Majesty's ship Porcupine. The free 
born American sailor refused to do 
duty under that flag. Refusing 
obedience he was put in irons, and 
on the next morning was given two 
dozen lashes; the same was con- 
tinued with starvation diet one 
weel<: like treatment was endured 
a second week, — irons and two 
dozen daily. At the beginning of 
a third week a heavy chain was put 
on his neck and attached to a ring- 
bolt in the deck; no one could 
speak to him, no one feed him but 
the quartermaster who gave one 
biscuit and a pint of water daily: 
in that desperate plight he was kept 
nine weeks. Then, however unwise 
his original refusal while the grip 
of autocratic power was on him, he 
found himself worn down, weak- 
ened, and his life in peril, and so 
decided not to sacrifice it but to 
surrender and take up duty, but 
was only fit for the hospital for a 
time. Clark was on that ship two 
and a half years, where were seven 
other imprisoned men, but never 
fully recovered; was transferred to 
a 98 gun ship, and there in hospital 
through the consul's aid he got dis- 
charged. 

Other similar accounts, some 
tales more ghastly yet affirmed on 
oath, could be introduced, but I for- 
bear. Let them be, as we can hope, 
exceptional cases, extreme deeds of 
violent men. If so, still it must be 
asserted such methods of control- 
ing men, such discipline was school- 
ed into the British Navy. The sys- 
tem made men having authority, 
unfeeling, despotic, brutal. Flogg- 
ing was and long had been the main- 
stay of discipline, the rigorous 
stinging hand to enforce obedience. 



16 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



It was the British idta, though not 
their's alone. Boys schools s^ive evi- 
dence; "birching" was universal, 
was a daily affair, was severe for 
trifling delinquencies; the schools 
were representative of British 
homes where the rod began the 
training. Hence it was a national 
institution. The array and navy, it 
was supposed, could not exist with- 
out it. Cobbett, a forceful writer, 
both tory and radical, said, "The 
English are a flog2;ing nation." 

In a captured ship was found a 
British official report from records 
of six months of a West India regi- 
ment of probably 580 men. There 
were 83 courts-martial — an average 
of three each week — which ordered 
2S,950 lashes, and certified reports 
of 10,809 applied, — as many as 800 
in the total to one (bad) man. 

A recent historian remarks on the 
brutalizing effects of flogging upon 
those who administer it. At first 
sickened and shrinking as they 
stand by commanding and counting 
the strokes and seeing blood and 
lacerated flesh, but at length hard- 
ened, finding nothing in their duty 
uncomfortable and repugnant. 

Some men have been known, it is 
told, who had positive gratification 
in directing the skillful swing of the 
cat and the effect on the cringing 
culprit. One lieutenant of a cap- 
tured ship was declared to be a prac- 
ticed and zealous expert in the 
shamt^il business which he superin- 
tende^a man of such brutal in- 
stinctC as to get actual enjoyment 
out of the agonizing spectacle, and 
heightened satisfaction in uphoUling 
naval discipline when It was his duty 
to order "tlie flogging of a sailor i 
round the fleet," — the victim taken 
in a launch to each ship in succes- 
sion, the crew piped to the side and 
the rigging to see the lash well laid 
on at each installment of the pen- 



alty wiiiln tlu* surgeon .stands b\ to 
watch the limit of the wretched fel- 
low's endurance. 

It was real gratification to this 
lieutenant to order out boys to apply 
the cutting lash to a boy at fault, as 
if it would be a proper hardening 
part of naval training. Abundant 
details are in histories, and are 
woven into sea fiction from actual 
incidents so that English literature 
declares the degrading nature and 
often extreme severity of methods of 
discipline in the British navy. 

Xot England alone: the United 
States must share the reprehension. 
Our government toolv over old world 
practices into her navy, but never ad- 
ministered, I will believe, in such 
criminal extremes. In fact law re- 
stricted punishment to 12 or 20 
lashes. However, it is a gratification 
that higher ideals have been attained 
as advances in civilization are teach- 
ing more clearly what is due human- 
ity everywhere, and thereby that 
hideous curse has been driven from 
the navy in both nations, in ours in 
1850 and by English law only in 
1881. 

If no longer the brutalizing shame 
can exist in our ships, one may in- 
quire if forms of i)unisbment have 
not been substituted deserving repre- 
hension. I recall a long ago conver- 
sation with a Bath business man, 
who incidentally referring to former 
sea experience in command, casually 
mentioned some methods of enforc- 
ing his authority not agreeable to 
sensitive ears. 

Other repelling, even harrowing 
tales of the former days in the mer- 
chant fleet can perhaps be told by 
the ft'W remaining aged seamen, mas- 
ters or men of our tall ships, now 
nearly swept from all seas. Friends 
of seamen believe that weighty dis- 
abilities, shaming evils still bear 
severely on many a common sailor 



SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES 



13 



The pressgangs made criminal as- 
sault upon the man, upon his lib- 
erty, causing" the resounding war- 
cry: "Sailors' Rights:" but the policy 
was adverse to the merchant fleet by 
reducing crews so that not enough 
were left to navigate the ships. 1 
noticed report of one vessel captured 
because short-handed. 

A careful estimate warranted th-3 
assertion by a writer: "In the years 
180 2 to 1812, the number of im- 
pressed American seamen in British 
ships was seldom less than the total 
enlisted force of the U. S. navy." 
Hence Great Britian gathered in as 
many of our seamen and held and 
trained them to use against us in ad- 
dition to her great force, as we had 
in all for any conflict with her. 

When declaration of war became 
l\nown on British warships, many 
impressed men declined the service 
which would force them to fight 
against their own countrymen. They 
refused duty and offered themselves 
to be prisoners of war, and werf^ 
held as prisoners, except when brutal 
treatment, irons, flogging, hunger, 
overcame their purpose and drove 
them back to work. It was estimat- 
ed that in the first year of the war 
2,000 Americans were discharged 
from the enemy's ships for refusing 
to serve and were consigned to 
prison-ships or to Dartmoor. 

For two generations that name 
was a word of terror, a symbol of 
suffering, a spot blasted by deeds of 
execrable inhumanity and oppres- 
sion. This inland prison 18 miles 
from Plymouth first held Frencli 
prisoners from the wars with Na- 
poleon, but later received Americans, 
chiefly those taken from our ves- 
sels of war and tlie many privateers. 
A young seaman of Woolwich after- 
wards Capt. David G. Stinson of Ne- 
quasset tested . the quality of Dart- 



moor treatment till by crafty and 
perilous expedients he escaped. 

The naval seaports, Chatham and 
Plymouth, were prison stations. One 
prisoner learned there were held at 
Chatham harbor in January, 1813, 
7,000 Frenchmen and 1,2 00 Ameri- 
cans; of the latter 700 were im- 
pressed men sent from various men- 
of-war to those prison-ships. 

On this side of the Atlantic was 
another spot of evil repute by wicked 
treatment, Melville Island near Hali- 
fax, about 500 feet in diameter, a 
few feet above tide-level. The first 
year of the war brought into it 
nearly 1,30 men, a large part cap- 
tured from Yanlvee privateers: 950 
were crowded on the two floors of 
the house, 130x40 feet in size; the 
remainder on a ship moored nearby. 
To a complaint by sufferers of pre- 
vailing disease and deaths frequent, 
the hardened British agent angrily 
replied, "Then die and be damned; 
the king has 150 acres to bury in." 

Capt. Jeduthan Upton, Jr., oi: 
Salem had sailed from Portland in 
the private-armed brig Hunter, and 
unlucky by capture was consigned 
to a Chatham ship. Returned on a 
cartel he brought from the San An- 
tonio on which he had been held, a 
list of 12G men out of 177 who had 
been impressed. Their names, for- 
mer ships, particulars of treatment 
were published in a Salem newspa- 
per. Their native States extended 
from Maine to Carolina; length of 
service after impressment was for 
many, two, three, and four years, for 
several 13, 15, even IS years. One 
of them narrated what had occurred 
in his case. I copy, though with 
some abridgment. 

John Nichols of Durham, Maine, 
first mate of the ship Franklin, 
sailed from Portland and arrived at 
Liverpool, February 2, ISO 9. On 
that very day returning from his 



14 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



boarding-house to the ship he was, 
seized by a pressgang and held at ' 
their headquarters one night. Next 
morning he told the lieutenant of 
the gang, his name, ship, position as 
mate, and gave his protection for ex- 
amination. His captain and super- 
cargo coming to him were denied 
admittance. He asked the return of 
his protection; the lieutenant replied 
with profane insolence and tore the 
document to pieces. He was sent to 
the guardship. and after a weelx, lo 
another at Plymouth; a month lator 
lie was sent on board the 7 4 gun ship, 
Aboul<ir: served 3 years, 14 days. 
His father obtained and sent a new 
protection, which was withheld. 
.\fter war began he determined to 
give himself up prisoner at whatever 
cost. Oct. 26, 1812, he went to the 
captain and refused further duty. The 
captain declared him an Englishman; 
if he would not do duty he would 
flog him; was put in irons 24 hours; 
then had 12 lashes on his bare back; 
still refused duty; would die first; 
again in irons 24 hours, then 12 
lashes; same repeated till 4 days and 
4 8 lashes in all; then allowed to be 
prisoner at large; in December was 
sent to Chatham prison-ship: hi-.3 
clothes refused with insult; for all 
his service he got £14. 

Withholding wages due impressed 
infn or payment of petty sums seemed 
to be approved policy in rases of 
men sent away from vessels to pris- 
ons. One seaman, a cai:)tain, — had 
his bedding taken, and his money 
also by order of the (ommandant. 
Another had his shirt stripped off 
his back. But such infamous mean- 
iHss must not be charged on all of- 
ticers. but on many vicious, greedy 
men who believed no complaints 
could be made or would have any 
force against them. In Dec-ember 
IS] 2, the brig Rai)id of Portland 



came in from Boston and told of two 
captains just arrived there whose 
vessels had been taken by the Maid- 
stone and the Sparrow, and they had 
been sent to that noisome Melville 
prison. Their sea chests were 
searched and their quadrants and 
other articles taken, yet with .prom- 
ises to return. When they were 
leaving to go on board the cartel to 
be exchanged, on their request for 
their property they were told no 
nautical instruments would be given 
up to privateers. On such a pretext 
they were robbed. 



II. Iiiipi-essnient and FloRsing 

There may be whispered or harsh 
chidings for me, that I am going 
back a hundred years to search out 
and portray evil deeds and barbarity. 
However grievous and repellant, 
they were realities in that war peri- 
od, belong in its history and can 
not for my purpose be omitted. 
They were facts of the war woven 
into its sources and its prosecution. 
Their shame and reprehension are 
the greater for they weie England's 
offences by her officers not other- 
wise ordered and controlled: they 
were in large degree results of her 
policy administered by reckless or 
cruel men: they made part of the 
history of the war, subordinate in- 
deed but infused into all its opera- 
ions, and here separately treated 
make emphatic disclosure of abhor- 
rent usages now abandoned. But I 
vould allow to no reader the Impres- 
sion that all officers were alike un- 
just and brutal. 

Britain's pride has been humbled 
by the War of the Revolution. Ill 
will survived, festering into irrita- 
tions and readiness to strike back. 
ri)on impressed sailors and prison- 



NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 



17 



which the humane are striving to 
remove, so tliat in such a mode of 
life laden with privations at the best, 
the lowest sailor may be regarded as 
a man, — as one among them half a 



century ago asserted they had not 
been, and that to all shall be as- 
sured not only full justice but all 
that makes for comfort and well- 
being at sea or in port. 



THIRD PAPER 

NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 



The United States and The Macedonian, October 25, 1812 



I. The Ships; The Commanders; The 
Action 

Few are the chapters, indeed the 
pages of world history, which have 
not some lines or sentences respect- 
ing war. Armed conflict continuous- 
ly, with its allies woe and death, 
wrecking human happiness and every 
interest, proclaims what man has 
been by greedy ambition or revenge, 
Those stained pages cry out to all 
who think of human welfare for mul- 
tiplied unceasing activity to ensure 
that no more of the same can be 
written and that present endeavors 
and agencies in the opening of this 
century shall succeed before its close 
in securing universal peace. 

Xor should hope and striving be 
in the least weakened though Europe j 
is now writhing in terror and bloody 
horrors of a shocking, criminal war. ! 

To the two great English speaking 
nations it is gratification and honor 
that they now stand fraternally to- 
gether in the closing hours of a hun- 
dred years of peace and are bound 
by mutual pledges for its continu- 
ance. 

Therefore an unkindly act, some 
one may deem ii, now to turn back 
to pages of truthful records and re- 
call years when the two nations were 
not friends but were in armed con- 
flict. Nevertheless I find reasons to 
look back just over the edge of this 
century of peace and to use a brief 



I recital of another naval battle to il- 
I lustrate by pitiful facts, the woes, 
the wicked injustice inflicted upon 
impressed American seamen. 

.^our months after President Mad- 
ison's declaration of war, and ten 
months preceeding the engagement 
of the Enterprise and Boxer, dis- 
cussed in a former paper, occurred 
the fierce combat of two representa- 
tive warships, the British Macedo- 
nian and the young nation's United 
States. 

The Macedonian was regarded "the 
finest frigate of the British navy." 
She was new, but two years old, and 
ft few months previously had been 
overhauled in Plymouth dock. She 
carried 49 guns and on this cruise 
h9'l 301 men. In two years' service, 
four officers had held the command, 
all strict disciplinarians, and as the 
crew felt, each captain applied the 
iron hand more rigorously than his 
predecessor, as was asserted to be 
the fact with the latest, John Sur- 
nam Garden. Hence, the Mace- 
donian was believed to be in the 
highest state of efficiency and the 
best manned vessel in that navy. 

The United States bearing her 
nation's name and to defend its 
rights, was one of the best frigates 
of her class. Though out of dock 
lacking fresh fitting, for two years, 
she was in fine condition, well equip- 
ped and fully manned, carrying 54 



18 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



of Stephen Decatur, a name emi- 
nent in our naval annals, an officer 
highly trained and skillful, a true 
seaman, vigilant and efficient. 

In the first months of the new con- 
flict which arrayed these kindred 
Anglo-Saxon peoples against each 
other, it was destined that these 
ships-of-war should meet and engage 
in the destructive work for which 
they had been constructed and com- 
missioned. 

When they did meet upon the 
ocean, when their commanders each 
on his own quarterdeck, sought to 
make the other's acquaintance by 
forcible measures, and when they 
met face to face on the cai)tor's ship, 
it was not their first meeting: an 
earlier social interview had been en- 
joyed the previous winter when Capt. 
Garden was entertained by Capt. De- 
catur on his ship at Norfolk. 

The strained relations of the two 
governments were well understood 
and everywhere discussed with fears 
or assertions that war must come, 
and it was natural that the disturbed 
situation would come up in the con- 
versation of the two commanders 
which might have a more serious im- 
port to these men, sin:e Ihey must 
feel that they would be foemen in 
such a conflict. The visitor viewing 
Decatur's ship offered apparently 
very sincere compliments on its ap- 
pearance, the manly qualities and 
discipline of the crew, ami further 
without rudeness or incivility gave 
free expression to his opinions on 
American ships and their crews, and 
though a stern commander was no 
less a gentleman in private relations, 
and now in a polite wa.\ yet with a 
tone of British superiority remarked 
to Capt. Decatur, "Your sht;)s are 
pood enough: you are a clever set of 
fellows: but wliat practice have you 



bad'.' Ay, that's the rub." Then with 
characteristic English self-confidence 
and evident depreciation of all 
things American, Carden further re- 
marked to his host at the table, — if 
' in that possible war already discussed 
they two and their ships should 
meet "What must be the result. " It 
is told by his biographer, that 
Decatur with emphasis and a manly 
spirit made reply "In that case my 
flag will never come down while 
there is a hull beneath for it to wave 
from." 

Neither commander Tiad then a 
thought that war was so near at 
hand. In it, however, Carden had 
further and the best opportunities 
to form opinions of Decatur's ship 
iind men and their practice also. 

Hostilities at once followed the 
leclaration of war, and only four 
months elapsed before this notable 
naval combat. Capt. Decatur sailed 
from Boston, Oct. S, IS 12. His 
cruise took him southeast toward the 
coast of Africa and on the 2r)th the 
United States and the Macedonian, 
armed representatives of their na- 
Uons. met for the grim, fierc*^ duty 
assigned them. They were west of the 
"anary Islands in lat. 29, and 
Ion. 29:30. Description of the ac- 
tion is not desirable and the distress- 
ing or horrible details should have 
no place here, only a few statements. 

The British captain held the 
.veather-gage but made a mistake 
nanly by belief as the vessels drew 
ogother that his anlasionist was the 
Tssex whose armament he knew: and 
hercfore, using bis supposed advan- 
age, trusted to his long range guns. 
t may have been the f;ital mistake, 
for the approaching foe. the United 
States, carried long range guns also 
and men behind the guns, so that be- 
fore Carden could bring the Mace- 
donian into closer action she had 



NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 



19 



sustained severe injuries and the 
rest of the game went against him. 

In 90 minutes — some accounts 
reckon more — the Macedonian's fire 
ceased; mizzen-mast had gone: fore 
and main topmasts also: mainmast 
cut and weakened: foreyard cut to 
pieces, much of the riggrng likewise; 
many guns disabled; boats shot to 
pieces; the best frigate of the Brit- 
ish navy — by Garden's official report, 
"a perfect wreck, unmanageable as 
a log:" — his antagonist seeming 
slightly harmed bearing down upon 
him, able to rake him at pleasure; 
surrender, or to be shot to pieces the 
only alternative; reluctantly his flag 
came down. 

The United States had lost one 
topmast; had rigging somewhat cut 
and other minor injuries, but so lit- 
tle harmed that a short time would 
have put her in complete trim for 
another action. 

On the Macedonian, more than 
masts and guns, the wreckage of 
men was awful; the boarding of- 
ficer declared 'the scene "distressing 
to humanity." Particulars are prop- 
erly denied. The dead were 3G, the 
wounded C8, many of them mortally. 
On the victor ship, five were killed, 
seven wounded, twelve in all. Sur- 
prise, almost consternation prevaded 
England as the defeat of "a crack 
frigate" added to previous losses, 
furnished startling evidence to the 
qualities and force of American ships 
and sailors. From whatever point 
of view one conclusion could not be 
avoided, — superior gunnery had 
turned the contest against the Eng- 
lish ship. Still the lieutenant testi- 
fied affirming the high state of dis- 
cipline and the constant exercise of 
the men at the guns. Rapid fire by 
the United States proved the pro- 
ficiency of the gunners, and the 
ship's sides at times seemed sheeted 
vitli flames so that the Macedonian's 



crew believed for a moment that 
their guns had set their foe on fire 
and gave a lusty cheer. The accur- 
acy also of the rapid firing had pro5f 
'.n the masts and rigging and partic- 
ularly that in the Macedonian's sides 
one hundred holes were bored by 
shot, and in her adversary only 
three. 

The United States was a larger 
vessel, carried five more guns, and 
many more men, but the damage to 
the ships and the losses in men were 
out of all proportion to the differ- 
ence in equipment. 

A high historical authority weigh- 
ing causes of the result, finds on one 
3ide a brave and skillful crew ably 
commanded; on the other, a brave 
but unskilled crew and an incompe- 
ent commander. 

Captain Stephen Decatur received 
an applauding and spirited ovation 
in New York when by delays of the 
winter season in passing through 
Hell Gate, he only on January 1, 
reached the city with the victor ves- 
sel. 



II. An Impressed Seaman of Wool- 
wich, Me., a Woful Victim 

The tragedy of war on the high 
seas, narrated in the pre/ious part 
of this paper, included a minor act, 
shameful or grievous to the separate 
persons concerned. 

When the Macedonian sailed from 
England the declaration oi war was 
not known, but there was general 
expectancy intensified by frequent 
exciting rumors. The crew, w^hat- 
ever their wishes or fighting inclina- 
tions, did not know that the actual 
conflict had begun till they were 
summoned to take part in it. When 
the strange vessel was sighted all 
oyes were turned to it and with in- 
creased excitement as the ship in 
full sail was bearing directly upon 



20 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



them, — each sailor saying to his 
mate, what is she, — what nation, — 
is she French.- -will there be a 
fight? 

In the Macedonian's crew had been 
eight impressed American seamen. 
Previously one had been accident- 
ally drowned. These Americans had 
heard the disquieting reports before 
sailing and had become well con- 
vinced of the high probability of war 
and had discussed the injustice 
which would involve them in it. Dis- 
turbing fears were deepened at the 
view of the unl^nown ship. What she 
might i)rove to be, if able to tell that 
the threatened war had begun, or if 
bringing to the British ship and to 
them, actual war was a matter of 
weighty or fateful import in the 
hour of waiting while the stranger I °f w^'"- ^'^^ ^'^^e left to tell the de- 
ship drew nigh. When at length her P'orable story in New London, when 
flags flung out aloft revealed the I ^^^ United States and her prize ar- 
red, white and blue, they were sure j '■'^^'■' December 9. Two of the 
it was a challenge of the expected thirty-six dead on the Macedonian 



Plainly there was no escape. The 
pitiless iron hand of discipline with 
autocratic power held them. Those 
men must stand at their posts of 
duty. No release; no hiding; mid- 
shipmen were stationed at various 
gangways with strict orders to shoot 
any who sought to slip away from 
their quarters. Cruel necessity drove 
the dismayed Americans to their 
several stations to meet demands of 
abhorred duty. 

The combat came on and its 
carnage: within an hour that brave 
seaman who dared such a request 
was dead on the bloody deck. That 
man was John Card of Woolwich. 

Another, .lolin Wallis, shared the 
same tragic fate. Botli had there in 
the ocean the hasty ignoble burial 



war, and when soon the command 
rang along the declis, — clear for ac- 
tion — those seven men knew they 
wti^ called to fight against their 
country. A moment of serious con- 
cern, pregnant with momentous 
I onsequen es, not simply of personal 
peril n the fi.'jht, what any seaman 
could feel, but to manly duty and 
lienor. With quick matured decis- 
ion, one of them, called by a young 
shipmate, "as brave a seaman as 
ever trod a pl^nk," — went aft to the 
cnptaln, for himself and in behalf 
of his males, and made request that 
they migiit Le relieved from the 
hour's duty of floihting against their 
counirMiM'n Capt. Carden savage- 



were Americans forced into the Brit- 
ish navy, enslaved under her heinous 
system and victims in her war. 
A shipmate of John Card, himself 
English-born, subsequently wrote his 
opinion. — that act of angry denial 
by Captain Carden wae more dis- 
graceful to him than to lose his ship. 
Indeed so rancorous was 13ritish sen- 
timent at the time, that probably few 
commanders would liave done other- 
wise. 

The Portland privateer Hunter 
was unluckily soon captured by the 
sloop-of-war Peacock, which carried 
away most of tlie Hunter's crew, 
nrisoners of war. In a few days the 
U. S. ship Hornet — what suggestive 



ly ordered h ni back to his station, ; names for an ocean duel, — assailed 
with an o.itli declaring he would the Peacock and by a fiercely vigor- 
shoot liim if such a request were ous fight of only fourteen minutes, 
made agriin. However much honor i forced surrender in a sinking condi- 
and love of country had Impelled the tion. In lad the Peacock so quick- 
petilion to their coniniander, it had ly sanli as to carry down part of her 
failed, v. as contemptuously rejected. I craw and two of the boarding party. 



NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 



21 



On the Peacock were two impressed 
men who before the combat requested 
to be allowed to go below and be 
prisoners with the men of the Hun- 
ter. It was denied and they were 
forced to duty. One was killed in 
the action. 

The Mecedonlan instance was cir- 
cumstantial and made definite by full 
records and therefore obtained Avider 
notice. Among the papers of the 
captured frigate were the muster- 
rolls of the crew, the several entries 
respecting each man. For the eight 
impressed men, the records were 
copied and set forth in tabular form 
and can be found in some of the 
newspajpers then eagerly exploiting 
the notable victory. The entries for 
the Woolwich seaman stand thus: 
(Date of Entry) (Impressed) 

April 13, IS 11 North Star 

(Name) (Rated) (D.D.) 

John Card Able Seaman ? 

(Age) (Nation) 

27 American 

Responding to the request for in- 
formation, a brother sent a state- 
ment to the Boston Patriot, which 
was published in March, 1813. 

<< * * * J j^Q^ inform you that 
my brother John Card of Woolwich 
in the District of Maine, was pressed 
on board His Majesty's frigate Mace- 
donian, June IG, 1810, from the 
ship Mount Hope of Wiscasset, and 
was killed on the Macedonian in 
battle with the United States, Cap- 
tain Decatur. 

"A disconsolate wife and jhild 
are in mourning and sorrow for the 
loss of husband and parent on whom 
they were dependent. 

"JOSEPH CARD." 

It appears that Card sailed from 
Maine in a vessel of Wiscasset, 
whose fine harbor, a half dozen 
miles from his home made it a sea- 
port then of large importance, and 
somewhere on the voyage he was im- 



pressed by the British North Star, 
and on that ship or transferred to an- 
other he was retained till the fol- 
lowing April, when he was entered 
on the Macedonian. 

His ship mate, John W-^llis, who 
was likewise killed had l;een im- 
pressed by the ship Tritf^n, ?'nd was 
entered on the Macedou'sn in Febru- 
ary, 1810. He was 24 years of age, 
but I have learned no more of him. 
The name Wallis, — now us'.'aily Wal- 
lace, — was then borne by numerous 
inhabitants of Phippcburgr. and it is 
very possible that he had belonged in 
that town. 

John Card was the son of Daniel, 
a son of Winchester Card who mi- 
grated from York to WoolT^'i'^h v^ry 
early in the settlement, and was the 
progenitor of numerous families, 
some of which are still residents. 
People of the town and many in Bath 
knew Henry A. Card of NpT'a=set, 
who died four years ago, a lifelong 
resident on the original Card firm. 
His father, Thomas, was a cousin to 
the impressed seaman. John Card 
was born in March, 1783, and at 
death was twenty-nine years and 
nearly eight months of age. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Reed. A little daugh- 
ter, Eunice, three years old, was left 
to the bereaved mother. 

One such bereavement in a Kenne- 
bec town would be esteemed Insig- 
nificant but it must be rep'^esentative 
of many when wives an;l mothers 
mourned their lost. If in 1812 there 
were 6257 impressed men registered 
at Washington, and a reasonable be- 
lief that twice as many were unre- 
ported in British ships abroad and 
though some thousands were later 
sent from the decks to prison-ships, 
many must have lost their lives "in all 
the encounters at sea. 

If John Surnam Carden was a 
stern commander, a rigorous marti- 
net of the quarterdeck, his severity 



77 



SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 



was aided by his lieutenant. David 
Hope. One side of this officer's 
character appeared when the chag- 
rined Garden in desperate plight pro- 
posed surrender; the lieutenant re- 
sisted and urged to fight on to the 
last shot and to sinlv, a reckless offi- 
cer who answering a base sentiment 
of war would carry down :'.0 men to 
a needless death rather than to ad- 
mit defeat, so heartless as properly 
to be put into the human bulldog 
class. His galling treatment of his 
men provoked ill-will, and when in 
the fight a junior officer fell dead, it 
is told that not one in the crew but 
wished the shot had struck David j 
Hope. 

He likewise was the unnamed offi- 
cer in a former paper — the grin- 
ning superintendent of the flogging I 
shrouds who got fiendish enjoyment, 
from the swing of the knotted cat. 
It was Hope who stood by to direct 
upon the back of a petty thief, 
though intentional theft had been 
vainly denied, the 220 lashes till the 
surgeon called a halt and when the 
victim had partly recovered, it was 
this very Garden who called him 
from the hospital to receive the re- 
maining 80 lashes of ' the ordered 
SOU, and then sent the poor fellow 
to a year in prison to bear the last 
jot of the wicked sentence. 

Fnder such officers — should I bo 
allowed to call them tyrants of the 
British navy?— did .John Gard of 
Woolwich serve eighteen months, 
performing the duty of "able sea- 
man." Whatever insolence he may 
have suffered, what hardships fas- 
tened on him by a tyrant's contempt 
he endured, yet bearing characteris- 
tics of the Card family as we will 
l)eIieTe. he was always a true seaman 
and under compulsion of injustice 
was obedient to duty. Other similar 
years were probably before him. — 
thirteen, eighteen, some impressed. 



men were held — when in unwilling 
war against his countrymen, sud- 
denly he obtained full discharge. 



Ml. Ileview and Suininary 

Two instances of active operations 
on the sea during the conflict of the 
United States with England have 
Deen reviewed. Xo full narration of 
incidents seemed desirable: no need 
to rewrite details of naval strategy, 
oroadsides, shot-raked decks, com- 
parative honors to victors or van- 
quished. 

Still existing accounts invited ex- 
amination or allowed enlargement by 
details or new materials to assure 
clearness or precision. Also the en- 
gagements had close relations with 
other matters of history; were grim 
products of former conditions or re- 
flected public aims and policy. 

Such reasons selected them for 
consideration, not simply because 
they were notable events of the war, 
or should be esteemed brilliant vic- 
tories, as if any action could be right- 
ly called brilliant which was neces- 
sarily joined with the wrecking of 
human life. 

some iwo score years ago the name 
of .lohn Card and his fate were en- 
tered in my notebooks. l)ut reasons 
why he was on a British ship and 
what the manner of his death couli 
not be conveniently investigated till 
within a year. His story whatever is 
known has been given. He in his death 
under compulsory service to a for- 
eign and hostile nation, and others 
similarly fated were bloody accusers 
of a pernicious ^policy. 

More than merely the man. one 
seaman of Nequasset." though many 
similar victims induced studious re- 
gard: their environment, the enmesh- 
ing net of irresponsible power, the 
thrall of real slavery in which they 
were forced to live and some to meet 



NAVAL COMBAT OF FRIGATES 



2S 



death, those decades of the nation's 
history signalized by irritating in- 
justice and frequent inhumanity 
were impelling facts seeming to de- 
mand treatment and public presenta- 
tion so as to offer instruction to any 
uninformed, especially the young of 
this opening century. 

In narrowed and local view, 
around John Card of Woolwich, one 
might feel, revolved all those dishon- 
orable deeds persistently continued 
against remonstrance for forty yeara, 
which exasperated the people and 
held chief place among the causes 
which drove the United States into 
war. If the characterization has 
been severe, the facts were knavish 
and abhorrent. 

Later information adds two in- 
stances of Woolwich men. Samuel 
Reed, Jr., a well known shipmaster, 
active in the first half of the last 
century was seized, evidently by a 
pressgang, in Liverpool. His protec- 
tion was so well certified that it was 
respected and he was released. 

John Curtis, 3rd, it is told, was 
impressed, but of the date and time 
of service or release I obtain noth- 
ing. He was less than twenty years 
of age and died at St. Thomas in 
1817. 

Two encounters have been re- 
viewed of the young nation's war- 
ships with its foe, both eminent for 
success, naval actions renowned in 
history, conferring prestige on its 
weak navy, on its commanders and 
men. However heartening and ap- 
plauded, they must not be allowed to 
obscure other instances of defeat ani 
stinging disaster. No lists on either 
side, the numbers of the fortunate 
or the calamitous can be permitted 
here. 

At the opening of the war Great 
Britain had in the various class<>s. 
1048 war vessels in all seas. The 
United States had 20 carrying 12 to 



4 4 guns, .\et of the beggarly number 
by a shaming government policy, 
three were unfit for the open sea. In 
comparison the men were 151,572 to 
5,025, and the guns 27,800 to 442. 
On this side of the Atlantic from 
Halifax to the West Indies, England 
had seven times the armament of the 
United States. 

It seemed daring or reckless to 
enter on war with such disparity of 
force, though military operations on 
the northern border supported an ap- 
pearance of equality and the hope of 
success, but in result were more dis- 
a.ppointing than propitious. In a lit- 
tle time exploits on the high seas 
served to prove to American sailors 
that ship against ship they would not 
fear to render good acco\int of them- 
selves. So early as August in the 
first year, the brilliant fight of the 
Constitution with the Guerriere gave 
them self-confidence in place of 
shrinking. Of that action, two hours 
at the outmost and but thirty minutes 
of close fighting until the British 
vessel became a dismasted defence- 
less hulk, a writer remarked, — "A 
small affair among the world's bat- 
tles, only a half-hour, but in that one 
half-hour the United States rose to 
the rank of a first class world power." 

The weak navy wonderfully grew, 
and in three years was nearly four- 
fold its original strength. But also 
privateers made a telling score for 
the cause. About 250 had license 
and almost swept British merchant- 
men from the sea. An estimate num- 
bers 1600 of them captured by both 
classes of armed craft. A careful 
and thorough study of the whole war 
by an esteemed author estimates the 
entire loss by ocean cruisers, for the 
Americans, 5984 tons and 2 78 guns, 
for the British 8451 tons and 351 
guns: also asserting there can be no 
question which side obtained the 
greatest credit, and never had a na- 



24 



SECOND WAR WITH ENCLAND 



tion gainud so much honor by a few 
single-ship duels. By the same 
author's estimate the damage on the 
whole inflicted on each other was 
not very unequal but clearly the bal- 
ance was in favor of the United 
States. 

Nevertheless when the terms of the 
treaty were determined late in De- 
cember, the London Times with a 
very bitter taste in its mouth made 
a doleful confession, "We have re- 
tired from the combat with stripes 
bleeding on our back. Scarcely an 
American ship which has not to 
boast victory over the British flag. 
Scarcely one British ship in thirty to 
forty, that has beaten an American. 
We retire from the conflict when the 
balance of defeat is so heavy against 
us." At the time of such a dis- 
consolate utterance, four more not- 
able victories by American ships had 
not been reported in Ix)ndon. 

The little American navy starte 1 
out with a dozen and a half fighting 
craft and in two years achieved more 
than England's bulky force. But the 
land forces gained little honor on the 
v/hole and their campaigning was 
little above failure, mainly saved 
from disgrace by the apijlauded suc- 
cess at Plattsburg and the final dra- 
matic battle of Xew Orleans. Even 
that could not have been entered on 
the credit side if swift steamships 
or telegraph had existed for news of 
the treaty was then hastening over 
the ocean. 

It Is believed that the ruinous ac- 
tivity of privateers upon England's 
commerce greatly hastened her readi- 
ness to make peace. The actual ad- 
vantage to either nation. England's 
losses excepted, and our own as well. 



was too slight to call off the game, 
but the people on both sides were 
tired of the conflict and were anx- 
ious to have it ended on any fair 
terms. One historian regards the 
treaty as little more than a mutual 
agreement to stop the war. Neither 
gained what had been boldly avowed 
at the outset would and must be se- 
cured. Demands at first made by 
each were withdrawn. No territory 
was yielded, several important mat- 
ters and wide differences were put 
over to a future time. 

On the part of the United States 
its commissioners discerned in early 
negotiations that one chief conten- 
tion, impressment, could not be 
pushed to its full relinquishment 
'without imperiling the treaty, and it 
was therefore politic and wise to yield 
it, and it was dropped, while there 
was a belief gained by exchange of 
opinions, reaching virtuallv to an un- 
derstanding, that because of new 
conditions evidently arising the prac- 
tice would cease. It did at once dis- 
appear for British belittling tending 
to frequent contempt had changed 
to wholesome respect, which extend- 
ed further since "the nations began 
to realize that America was a rising 
giant and demanded their respect." 
England's monopoly of the sea was 
broken: our seamen gained full 
sense of indei)endence and the nation 
most fully by a real separation. 

If friendship, that plant of slow 
growth, was not at once assured, a 
century has .proved its secure hold 
with mutual aims and sympathy fos- 
tering existing peace between the two 
people, prophetic of the times when 
in all the world wars shall be no 
more. 



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